4.  The applicants were born in 1955 and 1958 respectively. They live in Stariye Atagi, the Chechen Republic.  They are the parents of Mr Anzor Sambiyev (also known as Anzor Pokayev), born in 1980.
5.  According to the applicants, after the disappearance of their other son, Mr Amir Pokayev, in March 2002 (see Arzu Akhmadova and Others v. Russia, no. 13670/03), the second applicant sent Mr Anzor Sambiyev to live with her sister in Nazran where she believed him to be safe. Servicemen often enquired after his whereabouts and asked for his photographs, although they never explained why. The second applicant never told them where he was and removed all his photographs.
6.  On 8 April 2004 Mr Anzor Sambiyev came to Stariye Atagi to visit his family.
7.  On 10 April 2004 at approximately 9 p.m. the second applicant and Mr Anzor Sambiyev were at home. Suddenly armed servicemen of federal troops wearing camouflage uniform rushed into the yard of the house. There were about fifty servicemen who had arrived in armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and a “Ural” vehicle. Some of them surrounded the house. The second applicant told Mr Anzor Sambiyev to jump out of the window into the garden. After he did, she went to the yard and asked the servicemen what was wrong and what they were looking for. They told her to step out of the house. When she refused, they forced her into the yard. At that moment she heard shooting.
8.  The second applicant was not allowed to enter her house for approximately half an hour while the servicemen were inside. She went into her neighbours' yard. While she remained there she heard the neighbours' children, who managed to see something through the fence, saying: “They killed someone, they are dragging someone”.
9.  When the servicemen left, the second applicant returned home and found that everything had been thrown around the house. She noticed that they had taken the first applicant's passport, driving licence, medical certificate and a car certificate.
10.  In the morning the next day the applicants went to the head of the village administration and told him about the events of the previous evening. At the same time a body was found on the outskirts of the village of Prigorodnoye, which was identified as Mr Anzor Sambiyev. At approximately 10 a.m. his body was brought to Stariye Atagi and buried. He had a large wound near his heart, his arm was broken and there was a bullet mark on his watch.
11.  According to the Government, on 10 April 2004 at around 9 p.m. unidentified men wearing camouflage uniform and masks, and armed with automatic weapons, approached the house at 91 Nasrudilova Street in Stariye Atagi in an Ural vehicle. Mr Anzor Sambiyev, who was inside the house, jumped out of the window, and his mother, the second applicant, did not want to leave the house but was forced to by the armed men. After a short time she heard shooting and went out to the yard, where one of her neighbours told her that Mr Anzor Sambiyev had been taken away in the Ural vehicle. The neighbours also told her that they had seen two APCs.
12.  On 11 April 2004 at around 9 a.m. the body of Mr Anzor Sambiyev, showing signs of having died a violent death, was found on the left-hand side of the Grozny – Shatoy road in the direction of Shatoy within 20 metres of the turning to the village of Prigorodnoye in the Grozny District.
13.  On 11 April 2004 the Grozny District Prosecutor's Office opened criminal investigation no. 34046 into Mr Anzor Sambiyev's abduction and murder.
14.  During an inspection of the place where the body had been found, conducted on the same date, a cartridge case of 5.45 mm calibre was found under the body. According to the report no. 526/K of the forensic ballistic examination conducted on 9 May 2004, the cartridge could have been fired either from a Kalashnikov assault rifle or from a Kalashnikov light machine gun.
15.  On 13 and 19 April 2004 the applicants applied to the head of the Grozny District Police Department, the Grozny District Prosecutor's Office, the head of the village administration and the internal passport authority (паспортный стол) with a description of the circumstances leading to the death of Mr Anzor Sambiyev. They sought the identification and punishment of those responsible for their son's murder and the return of the documents stolen from their house during the search.
16.  The forensic report no. 156 of 6 May 2004 recorded the following injuries on Mr Anzor Sambiyev's body: two perforating bullet wounds to the chest and stomach and two perforating bullet wounds to the right forearm. The report described the perforating bullet wounds to the chest and stomach as life-threatening and said that death could have been caused by either of them. The report no. 156 was drawn up on the basis of a previous report of an examination of the body on 11 April 2004.
17.  On 15 May 2004, during an inspection of their house, a cartridge case of 5.45 mm calibre was found in their garden. According to the report no. 580/K of the forensic ballistic examination conducted on 22 May 2004, the cartridge could have been fired either from a Kalashnikov assault rifle or from a Kalashnikov light machine gun
18.  On 15 May 2004 the applicants were granted victim status in the criminal proceedings.
19.  The second applicant was questioned on 15 May 2004, 15 May 2005 and 13 March 2008. She submitted that on 10 April 2004 she had been at home with her son, Mr Anzor Sambiyev. At approximately 9 p.m. he had said that “Russians” had come. She had told him to try to escape through their neighbours' garden, which he had tried to do, having jumped out of the window. Then she had gone out to the yard where there had been a lot of men in camouflage uniform and masks armed with automatic weapons. In the street, behind the gates, she had seen an Ural vehicle. At that moment she had heard shooting. She had tried to enter the house, but the armed men would not let her. After a while she had entered the neighbours' yard and somebody had told her that Anzor had been taken away in the Ural vehicle. At the back of the yard, within approximately 10 metres of the window out of which Mr Anzor Sambiyev had jumped she had noticed a spot of blood and traces of a body being dragged from the window to the place where the Ural vehicle had been parked.
20.  The first applicant was questioned on 15 May 2004 and 13 March 2008. He submitted that on the date in question he had been away and had learned from the second applicant what had happened.
21.  Mr S., a relative of the Sambiyevs, was questioned on 15 May 2004 and 29 February 2008. He stated that on 11 April 2004 at 7 a.m. he had left for Grozny and on the road, within six kilometres from Grozny, he had noticed a group of residents and a body lying on the edge of the road wrapped in polyethylene. After the residents had unwrapped the body, he had realised that it was his relative, Mr Anzor Sambiyev.
22.  Mr A. S., Mr Anzor Sambiyev's uncle, was questioned on 15 May 2004 and 22 January 2005. He submitted that on 10 April 2004, while at home, he had heard shooting. In the evening of that day he had learned that men in camouflage uniform had abducted his nephew, whose body had been found the next day with multiple wounds.
23.  The investigating authorities also questioned other residents of Stariye Atagi, in particular: Ms Ya. S. on 14 May 2004, Mr R. A. and Mr A. Ch. on 12 January 2005, Ms M.Ch., Mr M.A., Mr Z. D and Mr I. Ch on 16 January 2005, and Ms R. S. and Ms Z. Ch. on 22 January 2005. They all stated that they had seen a group of armed men arrive at the village in two APCs and two Ural vehicles. Otherwise their submissions had been identical to those of Mr A. S.
24.  On 15 July 2004 the Grozny District Prosecutor's Office issued the applicants with the following certificate:
“...[O]n 11 April 2004 the Grozny District Prosecutor's Office instituted a criminal case no. 34046 ... in respect of the following fact[s]:
On 10 April 2004 at approximately 9 p.m. a group of persons wearing camouflage and masks and armed with automatic weapons and accompanied by two APCs and two “Ural” vehicles abducted Mr Anzor Sharpudinovich Pokayev, born in 1980, from his house at 91, Kh. Nuradilova Street in the village of Stariye Atagi, the Grozny District, the Chechen Republic.
On 11 April 2004 at approximately 9 a.m. on the left-hand side of the Grozny to Shatoy road, in the direction of Shatoy, within twenty metres from the turning to the village of Prigorodnoye, in the Grozny District, A. Sh. Pokayev's body was found. [The] body had multiple shotgun and stab wounds.
In the course of the preliminary investigation victim status was granted to the parents of A. Sh. Pokayev.”
25.  On 5 and 16 July 2004 and 2 November 2005 the SRJI applied, on behalf of the first applicant, in writing to the Grozny District Prosecutor's Office asking for information on the progress of the investigation and on the measures taken in order to identify the culprits.
26.  On 26 November 2005 the Grozny District Prosecutor's Office replied to the SRJI that the investigation was being suspended, but that certain investigative measures were nevertheless being carried out. It further stated that, as had been noted in previous correspondence, should the first applicant wish to study the case file, he should come to the Grozny District Prosecutor's Office on any weekday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
27.  On 24 December 2004 the investigating authorities questioned Mr Sh., an officer of the Grozny Department of the Interior (ROVD). He submitted that on 11 April 2004 he had been informed that a body with shotgun wounds had been found on the edge of the Grozny – Shatoy road which had been identified by relatives as Mr Anzor Sambiyev.
28.  On 25 December 2004 and 18 January 2005 the investigating authorities questioned six officers of the Grozny ROVD. They stated that they had information to the effect that Mr Anzor Sambiyev was a member of an illegal armed group and had been involved in a number of killings.
29.  According to the Government, the Grozny ROVD obtained information from the villagers to the effect that Mr Anzor Sambiyev had been a member of an illegal armed group under the command of Magomed, born in Stariye Atagi, nicknamed “Nasrula”. Magomed, in turn, was under the command of emir Isa Sadayev who headed an illegal armed group called “Dzhamat”. Isa Sadayev was wanted for the commission of particularly grave offences. The group of which Mr Anzor Sambiyev had formed part was conducting terrorist acts against the federal forces, officers of the Ministry of the Interior and representatives of the local authorities. In particular, Mr Anzor Sambiyev was suspected of complicity in the murder of four officials of the department of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in the Chechen Republic in Stariye Atagi in 2002. Mr S. K., a member of the illegal armed group under the command of “Nasrula”, submitted that apart from him Mr Anzor Sambiyev and eight other residents of Stariye Atagi formed part of the group.
30.  In order to establish the circumstances of the case, the investigating authorities sent numerous requests for information to other law-enforcement authorities, in particular: to the FSB department in the Grozny District on 12 April and 20 December 2004, and on 4 and 27 February and 3 March 2008; to Bureau no. 2 of the Investigation and Search Department of the Ministry of the Interior on 12 April and 2 May 2004; to the Grozny ROVD on 17 May, 8 June and 18 December 2004, 1 April 2005, and on 4 and 6 February 2008; to the Main Information Centre of the Ministry of the Interior on 21 August 2004; to the Directorate on Combating Organised Crime of the Ministry of the Interior and the Temporary Alignment of Departments of the Ministry of the Interior on 4 and 27 February and 3 March 2008.
31.  In order to establish whether a special operation had been conducted in Stariye Atagi on 10 and 11 April 2004, the investigating authorities sent the following requests for information: to the archive of the North Caucasia military district of internal troops of the Ministry of the Interior and to the archive of the North Caucasia military district of the Ministry of Defence on 2 May 2004; to the military prosecutor of military unit no. 20102 on 18 May, 8 June and 25 August 2004 and 18 December 2005; to the FSB department in the Grozny District on 20 January 2005; to the Temporary Alignment of Departments of the Ministry of the Interior on 20 January 2005.
32.  According to the information received, no special operations had been conducted in Stariye Atagi on 10 and 11 April 2004. At the same time, it was confirmed that Mr Anzor Sambiyev had been a member of the illegal armed group “Dzhamat” and since 1999 had been involved in military actions against federal servicemen under the nickname “Dzhandula”.
33.  The Government submitted that the investigation in the case had been suspended and resumed a number of times on account of the failure to identify a person to be charged with the offence. The most recent decision suspending the investigation of 15 March 2008 was quashed on 17 March 2008 and the investigation was resumed.
34.  Despite a specific request by the Court, the Government did not submit a copy of the entire file of the investigation into the abduction of Mr Anzor Sambiyev. However, they submitted sixty-four pages of case-file materials containing copies of expert reports, records of questioning and various procedural decisions. The Government stated that the investigation was in progress and that disclosure of the documents would be in violation of Article 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, since the file contained personal data concerning the witnesses or other participants in the criminal proceedings.